Tracking viewers (e.g., viewers of a monitor or television (TV) set/system) is becoming more complex with behavior changing from a passive, linear program watching experience, to time-shifted and on-demand viewing experiences. Users may use a TV to play games (e.g., video games) and run different types of applications (“apps”) on Smart TVs or a TV-connected device. Connected devices to TVs include set-top boxes (STB), Blu-ray players (BDP), game consoles and streaming devices.
The TV is usually not a gateway to the content; in most cases the TV is just acting as a monitor, outputting audio/video that is rendered by a connected device. Many households have a TV set connected to a set-top box from a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD), typically a cable, satellite, or Internet protocol TV (IPTV) provider. In this configuration, only audio and video is transferred from the connected device to the TV. Metadata, however, is not transferred, and the TV software cannot determine what is being viewed.